Can't Be
by Books 'n' Arrows
Summary: Max and the Flock get captured, so Max sacrifices herself in order for the Flock to be let go. The Flock break back into the Academy and take Max back, but she's unconscious and doesn't notice. Full summary inside. Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride.
1. The Sacrifice

**Full summary: (just adding on to what was already written) One night, Iggy falls asleep while on watch. That's the night that Max disappears. The Flock searches for her, but 3 years have passed with no sign of Max. They decide to buy a house and rest a while before searching for Max. But Jeb says only if they go to school...**

**Hey guys! It's me, x3lovefangx3! ****I was reading some stories and this idea just came to me! Sorry that I'm bad at summaries. It's actually more like a prologue thing than a summary, but oh well. I'll spend the first few chapters following the summary, then branch off to where the summary stops. Anyway, I'll post up a few chapters, and if you don't like it, tell me and I'll stop writing. Ideas are always welcome, as are flames. I know this chapters confusing and super short, but just try to bear with me as I try to figure out how to type the story (I already have the plot). Thanks!**

**x3lovefangx3**

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"Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

I gulped, then nodded. He motioned for me to follow him, and for once in my life, I obeyed willingly. I ignored the sick smell of antibiotics. I ignored the sight of the foot long needles. And most importantly, I ignored the stares from my Flock. I knew I would break if I looked at them.

**_Max, what are you doing?! You do realize that it's a _big_ risk you're taking, right? _**It was Angel, my baby.

**_Of course I know it's a big risk. But it's a risk I have to take._**

**_But why?_**

**_Easy. To save the Flock. They'll let you go. You'll be free, alive. They promised not to hurt you._**

**_Max, you don't have to do this._**

**_Yes Angel. I do._**

Then I shut down all thoughts and closed my eyes as the whitecoats, from the School, strapped me down to a cold, hard metal table. I even kept my expression guarded, showing no emotion, as they stuck a needle in my arm and injected some sort of serum into me.

I heard the whitecoat turn around and tell the Flock they could leave. All 5 of them hurriedly left, but the last set of footsteps, almost silent, seemed reluctant to leave.

Fang was the last person I thought of as I slipped into darkness.

_I never got to tell him I loved him..._


	2. Waking Up Without Her

**I forgot to tell you! In my story, Max and Fang never got together.**

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**Fang POV **(this happens 2 weeks after the first chapter)

I woke up at sunrise with a feeling that something was wrong. I quickly stood and immediately looked around at the Flock. Nudge was curled up next to Angel, both sleeping peacefully. Gazzy was snoring softly near the base of a nearby tree. Iggy was asleep next to the fire, which was now just a pile of ashes and embers. But that wasn't what was wrong.

"No!" I whisper-shouted.

I started to search the whole area frantically, not even bothering to be quiet while screaming her name. So, of course, the kids woke up.

"Wha' happ'n, Fang?" Gazzy asked sleepily.

Iggy was silent for a moment, forehead scrunched up as if he was thinking really hard, then he eyes went wide with a panicked and guilty expression on his face. "Fang, man, I'm _so_ sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep. Jeez, this is all my fault!" He clenched his hands and dropped his head onto them. His shoulders started to shake, and I realized he was crying.

Angel gasped and turned to look at me, tears starting to spill out of her eyes. Nudge looked around for a second, then slowly turned to look at me.

"Fang?" she started slowly. "Where's Max? She was here last night when we fell asleep. And we just got her out of the Academy yesterday. Do you think they took her back? 'Cause if they did we could dress up like white coats again and I could do our make-up and hair so no one can recognize us so we could get her back again. I mean, I know she volunteered to be the test dummy of that memory switching thing, but that was so she could save us from being captured or hurt or killed. And they already put that stuff in her, so couldn't they just let her be? Or is that too hard? But maybe she woke up and left. I know it's not likely, 'cause she was practically dead or in coma or something yesterday, but it's still possible. If that memory stuff worked she probably didn't know who we were, and she might've been scared and ran for help. I know I would've done that. But since we're in the woods, I probably would get lost. But then again, I have wings so I could just fly. Do you think Max still knows she has wings? Or do you think they cut off her wings? We didn't really check for that yesterday. Well, I thought of it, but I didn't tell anyone or check or anything. So I guess her leaving is also my fault..."

Nudge finally stopped rambling as she joined in the tear fest, quickly followed by Gazzy. He was trying to be tough, I could tell, but he was only 8. But I couldn't get what Nudge said out of my head. What if they did cut off her wings, _and_ the memory serum worked? Our Max was gone, possibly forever.

The thought of Max being gone forever was too much for me. I turned around and punched a tree so hard it split in half. My knuckles were now bleeding and splintered, but I didn't care. They'd heal, and the physical pain? I could deal with that better then the emotional pain.

Then I was furious. How _dare_ they do something like that to Max?! I turned around to face the Flock, flames coursing through my veins, a new determined look stuck to my face. I was their new leader, and I had to be strong and help these kids.

"What do we do now, Fang?" Angel asked. Of course she wouldn't know. She can't read my mind. I've permanently set up mind blocks that she can't break through anymore.

"We go and find her."

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**Sorry if you didn't like the chapter. This is only my second fanfic. Oh well. I tried.**


	3. Secret Room

**Max POV** (3 years later)

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Cassandra! Get up and turn that thing off!"

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Cassandra! I know you can hear me! Turn off that alarm clock!"

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

"_NOW!!!_"

I groaned. The thing was, I was _trying_ to turn the clock off. I just didn't know how, because the on/off switch broke. And my… um… "Mother" wasn't really helping with that situation.

Finally, I decided to give up trying to stop it and started playing around with the wires. About a minute later, I stood back, smiling, pleased with my work. The clock was silent, but that wasn't just what I did to it.

I silently walked over to my window and opened it. I took one last glance at my 2 day old Mickey Mouse clock, then threw it out the window. I sat down after throwing it.

BOOM!!!!!

I smiled to myself. That was probably the best bomb I had made yet! It had completely exploded, leaving behind no evidence of the bomb at all. Being a pyro is fun. Especially if your guardian (and mine happens to be Elizabeth Price, a.k.a. LizBeth) hates it if you keep a stash of bombs in the house. It just adds some excitement to the whole thing.

I heard LizBeth start climbing up the stairs. _Uh oh!_I thought, panicked. I quietly ran across the room to my closet door. Opening it, I slipped inside and crossed the 20 foot long room to the far wall. There, I pulled a black windbreaker off the clothes rack, making the small door hidden behind it reveal itself. I carefully opened the door without making the hinges squeak and stepped inside the secret room. I put the windbreaker back on the rack and closed the door behind me. A few seconds after closing the door, I heard LizBeth enter my bedroom. There was silence for a few seconds, and I knew she was looking around the room for me. About a minute passed, and LizBeth finally left. _Phew! That was close!_, I thought to myself.

I looked around the room. It was pretty awesome, you had to admit. There was a giant flat screen TV covering the whole entire back wall. There were couches and bean bag chairs sitting in the center of the room in front of it. I even had a smoothie bar installed in the right hand corner. The walls were black, just like all the other rooms in my area of the house. I'm not emo, or goth, but black is just my favorite color. The carpet was a bright white that changed colors when you hit a switch.

Even though the whole room was cool, the left corner was my favorite. I had a black bean bag chair that was shaped like a Scottie dog with a bulletin board hung over it. I put a one way window in, too. On the outside, you could only see a wall. But on the inside was a window with a great view of a river in my backyard. I loved to watch the sun set over the water. It was relaxing, and it was the perfect time for me to work on my drawing.

Drawing was my hobby. All the teachers and my friends say I'm good at it, but I don't think so. Yet I still draw. My favorite things to draw are birds and kids with bird wings. I don't know why, but the kids seem real, even though I know in my mind they're not. I hang up sketches of them on my walls, but only in the secret room, where they're hidden from the rest of the world. I've never shown the pictures of them to anyone, not even LizBeth.

I walked over to my sketch pad and sat down on the bean bag chair. I picked up a pencil and began drawing 1 of the 5 bird kids. I seemed to be drawing him more than the others, but, again, I don't know why.

When I finished my drawing, I sat the pencil down and studied the picture. All in all, it was pretty good. My best one yet. But it was missing something. _Hmm..._.

I snapped my fingers. "That's it! He's missing a name!" I told myself. "But what should I name him?"

**_Fang._**

_...Fang_. I looked at the picture in my hands. It suited the winged boy perfectly. Grinning, I scrawled his name in fancy letters across the corner of the page. There, finished. I tacked it up on my bulletin board and started to leave, but stopped when I realized something. _I didn't think of his name!_ It was a voice from inside my head!

I shook my head. _That's crazy_, I thought to myself. Then I, once again, went to leave the secret room to get ready for the first day of camp.

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**Sorry for all the time gaps. I'm trying to skip a bunch of boring useless chapters that aren't really needed. I think this is the last time jump, and the rest of the story should flow smoothly for now on. And before I forget, Max's name is Cassandra when she lives with LizBeth, so if I put something like Cassandra POV, I mean Max, okay?**


	4. Give Me An A!

**Fang POV**

I stood outside, arms crossed over my chest, examining the thing that stood before me. I loved it, yet hated it at the same time. It was pretty cool, but brought back some memories.

"Fang! Come on! I wanna go swimming!" Angel called, already running inside.

_Swimming?_ Since when was there a pool? Oh well. At least they're happy. In fact, I seem to be the only one _not_ happy. I was itching to go back out and search for Max again, but we had looked for her 3 years straight and hadn't found anything. The others deserved some time to relax before we head out again.

_**So can we go swimming or not? Nudge wants to, too.**_ Angel thought to me, claiming my attention again.

I sighed. "Sure."

"Yay!" Nudge squealed, then turned and flew into the air. _Huh???_

Shaking my head, I entered our new house.

This house was A shaped. Jeb bought it for us 3 years ago when Max went missing. He said it was in case we wanted to settle down for a while. But seriously, what's up with Jeb and vowel shaped houses?

I made my way through the house, exploring every room. I mean, I know I said it was bought 3 years ago, but that doesn't mean we ever used it.

I quickly found that each room was suited for each Flock member perfectly, and with Nudge's new yet useless power, we could always change the room colors without any of the work.

Okay, in a short summary of the house, Iggy's room was white, mine was black, Nudge's was lavender, Gazzy's was camouflaged, and Angel's was pink with turquoise flowers. There was even a room for Total, with white dog bones painted over a pale blue background.

Each room had it's own bathroom, and the kitchen was a plain cream color. There was a game room and a living room a giant TV that had a bunch of game systems hooked up to it.

But there was 1 room I found that I didn't know whose or even _what_it was. It was just plain old concrete. I think. At least the walls and floor and ceiling looked like they were made of concrete. Gazzy and Iggy were with me when I found it, and I think they knew what it was because they immediately rushed in and shut the door behind them.

Plus, it turns out that this place actually does have a pool. You know that little triangle part in the middle of the A? Yeah, that's where it is. And the only way to get to it is by flying.

All in all, pretty cool house. But it was missing something. I knew it was, I just didn't know what.

I was on my way to my room when I heard a knock on the door. My first thought was neighbors trying to be friendly, but I quickly got rid of it. Did I mention that our closest neighbors were over a mile away?

When I got to the door, I was surprised to see Jeb standing there. I raised an eyebrow in question.

"Hello Fang. Or should I say Nick."

I could feel my eyes widen slightly. Nick was the name use when I either go to the hospital or school, and since I definitely didn't need to go to the hospital… _Uh oh._

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**I didn't like this chapter. But I had to put it in. Sorry for lack of any action, words, and everything. This was kind of like a filler, I guess. The next chapter should be better.**


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